Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Backwards Date Parsing.

Backwards Date Parsing

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 17, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


Larry was unfortunate enough to suffer a blue-screen crash on his system. After repairs, Larry noticed that the way in which Excel parsed dates was backwards. For instance, if he entered 2/3, he expected Excel to parse it as February 3 but Excel was instead parsing it as March 2.

There are two possible causes for the problem, and you'll need to figure out which one it is. First, you should determine if the problem exists in all of your Excel workbooks or just in a few. If it is in a few, then it is probable that the date format has been set incorrectly for the cells in question. Follow these steps:

  1. Select the cells with dates.
  2. Right-click any of the selected cells and click on Format Cells from the resulting Context menu. Excel displays the Format Cells dialog box.
  3. Make sure the Number tab is displayed.
  4. In the Category list, choose Date.
  5. In the list of Types, select a date format you want to use.
  6. Using the Locale drop-down list, choose English (United States).
  7. Click OK.

If the problem is exhibited in all your Excel workbooks, then chances are good that it isn't an Excel problem at all but is related to your operating system. (In Larry's case this is probably the culprit, as the blue-screen crash was related to the operating system.) You can verify this because if it is the operating system, the "backward" dates will be evident even in other programs. For instance, open Windows Explorer and take a look at some of the dates displayed for various files. If the dates there appear in an order different than you would expect, then the problem is definitely with the operating system.

In this case you will need to open the Control Panel, display the Regional Settings, and make sure that the settings are proper for the United States. Understand that making the change in the Regional Settings will affect not only Excel, but all programs on the system.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11928) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Backwards Date Parsing.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Removing All Formatting

Getting rid of formatting from a cell or group of cells can be done using several different techniques. This tip ...

Discover More

Minimizing the Ribbon for a Document

Want the ribbon to be minimized for a particular document? Word may not allow you to get the exact result you want, as ...

Discover More

Adding Borders to Cell Contents

Word allows you to quickly add borders to cells in a table, but you may not know that you can also add borders to the ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Calculating Months of Tenure

Need to know the number of months between two dates? It's easy to figure out if you use the DATEDIF function.

Discover More

Calculating Fractions of Years

When working with dates and the relationship between dates, Excel provides a variety of worksheet functions that may ...

Discover More

Converting an Unsupported Date Format

Excel makes it easy to import information created in other programs. Converting the imported data into something you can ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is nine minus 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.